Sep. 22--Agricultural biotechnology giant Monsanto plans to build a $15 million research and development facility at Lubbock Business Park, a Monsanto official and the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance announced Monday.

The Creve Coeur, Mo.-based company's board was meeting Monday night to give final approval to the deal, but had authorized LEDA to talk about the venture.

Monsanto's facility will bring 20 jobs to the economy, five of which would be filled by people at the doctorate level and 10 filled by those with bachelor's or master's degrees, said Marc Farmer, LEDA's director of business recruitment.

Farmer said he anticipates first-year payroll for the 20 jobs will be about $1.6 million.

No startup date was announced.

Monsanto was one of six companies whose incentive deals were approved at LEDA's monthly board meeting.

Richard Sheetz, a cotton breeder for Monsanto, said the company was looking for an research and development site in cotton country.

"With the shift of acreage from cotton to various other crops in the South and Southeast, Texas now accounts for more than half of the cotton acreage in the United States," Sheetz said. "It is very important for us to be here as an industry."

Monday's litany of announcements was "one of the biggest days I think we've ever had," said LEDA Chief Executive Officer Gary Lawrence, talking of the number of companies and number of jobs.

Agreements LEDA's board approved Monday with the six companies represented 132 jobs created or retained in Lubbock, a combined $6.1 million in wages and $30 million in capital improvements.

"I've said before that we get just as excited about six employees as we do about 600 employees," Lawrence continued, noting LEDA pursues companies of a variety of sizes because "if all we have are 600-employee companies and one leaves, it makes a pretty good-size hole."

And the diversity was there. The largest deal announced was an incentive package for Injection Molding, which is expected to hire 60 people for production work requested by six new customers, said the 62-year-old Lubbock company's general manager, Tom Tebo.

Kenny McKay, LEDA's director of business retention, said the Injection Molding deal means $1.8 million in first-year wages and a capital investment of about $2 million.

One of the big customers Injection Molding will be working with is Houston-based Farouk Systems Group, which manufactures CHI hair-styling irons and hair dryers.

Farouk Systems' founder, hairdresser Farouk Shami, is withdrawing all of his company's manufacturing operations from China and South Korea.

The smallest deal involved Sure-Way, a medical waste management company from Deer Lodge, Mont., that came to Lubbock at the urging of Covenant Health Systems. The company, which makes recyclable collection containers for medical "sharps," such as needles and syringes, has been here since March. It employs six people in a medical autoclaving facility. Autoclaves use high-temperature steam to sterilize items.

Sure-Way has six employees and first-year wages are expected to total $169,000.

Also confirmed Monday was a deal with Odessa-based Standard Sales, the regional distributor for Anheuiser-Busch products, which chose Lubbock over Odessa and San Angelo as the site of a new distribution center. The company's headquarters is in Odessa.

The 109,000-square-foot facility will be built at the Lubbock Business Park. LEDA officials said the project is a $12 million capital improvement, and the distribution center will employ 22 people, with salaries totalling $674,000 the first year.

Smartfield, which is developing the Smartcrop agricultural irrigation management system, also received incentives to stay in Lubbock despite relocation overtures from Dodge City, Kan., and Omaha, Neb. The company plans 12 full-time hires with a first-year payroll of $615,000 for the new positions.

PROS, an acronym for Professional Rebuild & Optimal Service, rebuilds air and gas compressors. The company is a local acquisition of an AER Supply West facility that parent company Ingersoll Rand Industrial Technologies closed at the end of July.

The move saved 10 jobs of 17 that were listed as layoffs and added two positions. LEDA officials said the first year's wage for PROS is expected to total $604,000.

To comment on this story:

walt.nett@lubbockonline.com l 766-8744

BUSINESS/Agriculture giant plans R&D unit at business park

First appeared on lubbockonline.com: 8:38 p.m. Monday.

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